ONGOING DEVELOPMENT
Subsequent tours of duty may see you being employed in a wide variety of areas, including:
- One of the other areas of the Air Operations (Control) officer specialisations.
- As ‘Mission Crew’ on the E-7 Wedgetail Airborne Early Warning aircraft based at RAF Waddington.
- Tactical ATC – high readiness small teams who deploy ahead of the main force to set up landing zones and airfields worldwide.
- Instructing ab-initio and postgraduate students.
You may also be selected for advancement to higher management roles, responsible for leading large teams of fellow officers and airmen. Throughout your career, you should expect operational deployments (generally of up to but not limited to 6 months duration) to a range of locations worldwide, together with ad-hoc shorter detachments to such locations as Cyprus, Lithuania, Gibraltar, Canada, Spain, the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia and the US. The RAF also has a variety of exchange opportunities which include instructing the US Marine Corps in Arizona; the US Air Force Space Command in Colorado and the Royal Norwegian Air Force.
TRANSFERABLE SKILLS
As an Air Operations (Control) Officer, you will obtain numerous transferable skills including advanced leadership (CMI accredited), change and project management and the opportunity for further academic development.
VISIT TO AN RAF UNIT
Opportunities exist to visit an RAF unit where you will be able to meet serving Air Operations (Control) Officers and learn more about the branch and the various roles you could find yourself employed in. These visits are called Realistic Job Previews, for which on-site accommodation and meals are provided. These visits will be offered to you by Armed Forces careers staff as you progress through the application process.